Tens of thousands of American youth smoke sweet beedi cigarettes every day, and every day tens of thousands of Indian child slaves roll them. Forced to work 10 hour days to meet 2,500-cigarette quotas, young boys and girls hand-roll the leaf-wrapped tobacco cigarettes that come in flavors such as bubblegum and chocolate.
If you need another reason to not smoke, think of the childen in India and Bangladesh who are sold into slavery by their parents in order to pay off family debts. Toiling for years, these childen rarely manage to keep up with the loan's inflated interest rates. They are beaten for slow work and starved to keep them awake for the long hours.
In 1999, CBS' 60 Minutes II aired footage of enslaved children rolling beedis. Within days, the United States Customs Service had banned imports of Ganesh brand beedis into the US, invoking the 1995 Child Labor Deterrence Act. But all other brands of beedis continue to be imported.